Basketball Blog

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team has re-signed free agent center Dikembe Mutombo.

Mutombo (7-2, 260, Georgetown) has averaged 10.1 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.81 blocks in 1,148 career games (970 starts) with Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and Houston. Last season with the Rockets, Mutombo averaged 3.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.01 blocks in 75 games (33 starts). He reached double figures in boards 21 times, while leading the Rockets in rebounds in a team-high 24 games. Overall, he had four of the top five rebounding performances for the Rockets in 2006-07.

Mutombo also averaged 4.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.45 blocks over the 33 games (12/26/06-3/3/07; 4/6/07) he started for an injured Yao Ming. He posted double-digit rebounding totals in 11 consecutive games (12/27/06-1/16/07), which was the fourth longest such streak of his career (16 games: 3/22/93-4/21/93; 15 games: 3/24/99-4/16/99; 14 games: 12/9/92-1/8/93). Mutombo became the first Rockets player with a stretch of 11 or more consecutive double-figure rebounding performances since Charles Barkley (12 games: 11/28/97-12/22/97). He had 19 boards vs. the L.A. Lakers (1/10/07), while his fourth of a season-high five blocks moved him past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3,189) into second on the NBA’s all-time blocked shots list.

Mutombo posted a season-best 22 boards (8 offensive) at Denver (3/2/07), becoming the oldest player in NBA history to grab 20 or more rebounds in a game.